Kaval's Kickoff: 'We did it!'

Congratulations to everyone who represented in a major way this past week as we obtained a unanimous vote in favor of our stadium project. It has been a long and winding road but we are now poised to take the final steps in creating a permanent home for the Quakes here in San Jose. I have never been prouder of Quakes Country than when we had hundreds of fans on their feet with huge "Build it Now!" signs as well as folks holding scarves. The showing of solidarity was inspiring for the ownership, front office, players, and everyone associated with the team.

I want to especially thank everyone who spoke on our behalf. The outpouring of positive stories was critical in demonstrating to the planning commission the amazing positive impact the Quakes have on the San Jose community. As one of the commissioners clearly stated, the show of support made an impact.

I wanted to explain the next steps so that everyone understands where we are going in the process. This coming week, we are spending a great deal of time with our construction team at Devcon. We will be laying out timelines for the construction drawings that need to be created. This is a significant seven-figure financial investment. These are the design documents that are used by the construction folks to actually build the stadium. They could not be finalized until we had the permit and understood exactly what we could build and what requirements that the city would have. That process is pretty intensive and I will know in the next week or two how long it will take to complete.

At the same time, we will be finalizing our financing plan now that we understand the use of the facility, its costs and the timing. All of these efforts will lead us to dates for a groundbreaking and an opening. While it’s too early to say exactly when those will occur, we are aiming to break ground this year and open the stadium in 2013.

Thanks again for everyone's support. Many years from now once our stadium has been a longstanding pillar of the community and when we have many more MLS Cups (More than LA at that point), we will look back on Feb. 22, 2012 as one of the most important dates in the history of our club. On that date, we crossed the Rubicon and finally put the pieces together to make our home a reality. Certainly, more challenges remain until we open the stadium and tons of work needs to be done, but we should all take at least a small moment and savor this well-deserved victory that will long live in the annals of Quakes lore.